Manhattan home to ‘Enigma’

Miramax nabs rights for U.K.

Tyro distrib Manhattan Pictures Intl. is in final negotiations to pay approximately $2.5 million for North American rights to the Intermedia production “Enigma,” which stars Kate Winslet and Dougray Scott. Separately, Miramax Films has acquired the title for the U.K.

Directed by Michael Apted and adapted by Tom Stoppard from the Robert Harris bestseller, “Enigma” is set in 1943 as two young British mathematicians try to crack the Enigma Code of a German U-boat.

An Intermedia-Senator Film co-production, film was produced by Mick Jagger’s Jagged Films and Lorne Michael’s Broadway Films.

Executive producers are Guy East, Hanno Huth, Victoria Pearman, Nigel Sinclair and Michael White. Pic preemed in January at the Sundance Film Festival. The William Morris Agency repped the film for the producers along with Intermedia’s Jere Hausfater.

As part of the deal, the Gotham-based MPI has made a significant theatrical commitment for the pic’s platform release. MPI previously announced plans to acquire four theatrical features in its first year and as many as 12 films annually thereafter.

Also on the slate for MPI, which was launched by Paul Cohen and Julius Nasso, is the Nasso-produced “One Eyed King,” starring William Baldwin and Armand Assante; it’s slated for a fall release.

MPI is backed by Madison Entertainment Partners, a funding entity that purchased Nasso’s former foreign sales company Seagal-Nasso Intl. The partnership includes former newspaper publisher and Press Broadcasting head E. Donald Lass, lobbyist Paul Manafort and actor Danny Aiello. Actor Stephen Baldwin serves as a consultant.